Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

how fast were you taking off wort? Maybe the sparge water didn't spend enough time with the grain bed? Is your mash tun a false bottom type? how is it insulated? Going by your figures you are only getting less than 50% efficiency. Maybe you stir to much and don't let it sit long enough? Each time you stir you lose some heat..

3.5l/kg seems way to wet to me. Doesnt leave much room for a sparge. I did 2.4l/kg.. But I am very green at this also just some ideas :-B :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote:I kept 45l from 17kg grain as the main wort. I put the remainder 20 or so litres into my sugar head.. Maybe your not using enough grain or adding to much sparge water.

I think it may be right on the money there...

bluc wrote:3.5l/kg seems way to wet to me. Doesnt leave much room for a sparge. I did 2.4l/kg.. But I am very green at this also just some ideas :-B :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yer, if you look at my attachment it’s kinda what it’s looking like.

I had been watching lots of beer guys on Youtube and lots are experimenting with putting the full amount of water into the tun and not sparging at all. It seemed the simplest approach to me, so that's what we did with our AG. So about 40L water at 73deg from memory for an hour, stirring on the 15min. We seemed to get good conversion, but we have only done it once. With the esky, we had bugger all temp drop too.

The only thing I am going to change for the next one is the false floor kindly donated by washing machine that crapped itself. We had no real filtering. Next time, the first few litres will be put back so that we can get a clearer wort.

TPP,
What was your SG?

SG was 1.053, FG 0.991. Strike temp was 73 which dropped to 66 once mixed.

10kg malt, 47L water.

I was watching a youtube vid on beer mashing and they stated that if you don't want to do a sparge or do only a very light sparge.
When you have finished mashing you raise the temperature by about 5 degrees and hold if there for a while, ( they held it for 10 mins). This step is supposed to loosen up an sugars that are still held on to by the grain. Apparently this step was developed by the BIAB mashers.

I don't know how accurate this is being on youtube but it may be worth a look into. If any one here does BIAB mashes, maybe they can either confirm or deny if this step is done, or indeed useful.

With regards,
Nino

Nino wrote:I was watching a youtube vid on beer mashing and they stated that if you don't want to do a sparge or do only a very light sparge.
When you have finished mashing you raise the temperature by about 5 degrees and hold if there for a while, ( they held it for 10 mins). This step is supposed to loosen up an sugars that are still held on to by the grain. Apparently this step was developed by the BIAB mashers.

I don't know how accurate this is being on youtube but it may be worth a look into. If any one here does BIAB mashes, maybe they can either confirm or deny if this step is done, or indeed useful.

With regards,
Nino

Sounds like you're referring to a mash out. It does loosen the sugars and the wort a little bit it's not a replacement for sparging, it's to make sparging more effective.

You normally raise the temm to 76 before sparging, this is called mashing out. Then sparge at the higher temp.

orcy wrote:You normally raise the temm to 76 before sparging, this is called mashing out. Then sparge at the higher temp.

Thanks for the info, so if you raise the Temp to 76 before sparging what temp should I make my sparge water?

79c i did 80 but didnt mash out..

Mash out also helps stop foam up correct?

Even though we are making beer the end result is whisky. Isn’t mashing out at a higher temperature and sparging at higher temps 78-80 degrees going to produce unwanted tannins from the grain?
Beer and whisky are very similar but also worlds apart

I see orcy actually recomended 76-78 so i guess i overshot the mark :handgestures-thumbdown: what temp do you sparge at markus. Have actually read cold water sparge works also...

Same temp I mash in 64~65 deg
Have read a little on cold water sparging but yet to try it. Apparantely it is just as good

markus wrote:...Isn’t mashing out at a higher temperature and sparging at higher temps 78-80 degrees going to produce unwanted tannins from the grain?

I have heard this as well...

I have also heard the harsh tannins dont carry through like they do in beer. i guess I will find out :music-deathmetal:

Also read somewhere long time ago that tannins are produced above temps of 68/69 degrees. But don’t quote me on that.

My wash from last Saturday is ready to run but won’t have a chance to do it till Sunday. I’ll post results once done :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Will check mine tomorrow..

From the beer forums I've read tannins are mostly pulled from around 80 upward. I mash at 65-66 and then sparge at about 72-75. By the time the sparge water filters through it's lost temperature too don't forget.

I really recommend following the beer guys, I've picked up a lot regarding all grain from them that's going to help me with whisky.

We're finally putting down a peated all grain next weekend, keen!